Qurrat Ulain
Mr. Stevens
ELA 10
27th September, 2015
Relation Between the Motif of “Blackness” and “Racism” in Shakespeare 's Othello
Most individuals often assume the words “blackness” and “racism” to be connected. The reason for this is because various imbeciles who are racist, sometimes believe that people of other races will not go to heaven. In addition, during the Elizabethan era, large amounts of people believed that black was the colour of witchcraft so it would make sense for an uneducated person of that time to be racist against black people. In Shakespeare’s Othello, however, the motif of blackness conveys a deeper sense, which is then linked to racism. Racism is a very obvious motif in Shakespeare’s Othello. One example …show more content…
An example of this scenario is during the last few lines of Iago’s famous soliloquy in which he says, “Hell and Night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.” ( Ⅰ . Ⅲ. 392/393) Here Iago places “hell” and “night” together, indicating that hell is similar to night because the sky is usually black during the night and hell is also often described as black. Then he goes on to say that hell and night must bring some type of “monstrous birth” to the world’s light. By monstrous birth, he might be hinting towards an upcoming disaster. And then assuming that he is talking about Othello when he says “hell and night”, what he might be trying to say is that the entire issue with Othello is going to ruin the “world’s light”, as in all the good in the world. From a different point of view, this line is one of the few that hints towards Iago being correlated with the devil. That is because when he says “hell and night” will bring a monstrous birth to the world 's light, he might be referring to himself since he is the one coming up with a plan to shatter the happiness in Othello’s life. In that case, the “worlds light” would mean the happiness in Othello’s life and the “monstrous birth” would be Iago’s hateful …show more content…
Iago knows who in Othello’s life is racist, and also happens to know how he can ruin Othello’s life because of his racial difference. Iago has enough knowledge about each character in Othello’s life that he is able to manipulate them in a way that even the brightest would not notice. The question is, what does Iago hope to gain by destroying the lives of the people around
Mr. Stevens
ELA 10
27th September, 2015
Relation Between the Motif of “Blackness” and “Racism” in Shakespeare 's Othello
Most individuals often assume the words “blackness” and “racism” to be connected. The reason for this is because various imbeciles who are racist, sometimes believe that people of other races will not go to heaven. In addition, during the Elizabethan era, large amounts of people believed that black was the colour of witchcraft so it would make sense for an uneducated person of that time to be racist against black people. In Shakespeare’s Othello, however, the motif of blackness conveys a deeper sense, which is then linked to racism. Racism is a very obvious motif in Shakespeare’s Othello. One example …show more content…
An example of this scenario is during the last few lines of Iago’s famous soliloquy in which he says, “Hell and Night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.” ( Ⅰ . Ⅲ. 392/393) Here Iago places “hell” and “night” together, indicating that hell is similar to night because the sky is usually black during the night and hell is also often described as black. Then he goes on to say that hell and night must bring some type of “monstrous birth” to the world’s light. By monstrous birth, he might be hinting towards an upcoming disaster. And then assuming that he is talking about Othello when he says “hell and night”, what he might be trying to say is that the entire issue with Othello is going to ruin the “world’s light”, as in all the good in the world. From a different point of view, this line is one of the few that hints towards Iago being correlated with the devil. That is because when he says “hell and night” will bring a monstrous birth to the world 's light, he might be referring to himself since he is the one coming up with a plan to shatter the happiness in Othello’s life. In that case, the “worlds light” would mean the happiness in Othello’s life and the “monstrous birth” would be Iago’s hateful …show more content…
Iago knows who in Othello’s life is racist, and also happens to know how he can ruin Othello’s life because of his racial difference. Iago has enough knowledge about each character in Othello’s life that he is able to manipulate them in a way that even the brightest would not notice. The question is, what does Iago hope to gain by destroying the lives of the people around